When I was a boy there used to be a cartoon that would come on TV
each weekday morning before I had to go to school called Marvel's
Cavalcade of Heroes--or something like that. So every morning for
a couple years, before I went to elementary school I'd watch guys
like Iron-Man and Thor beating up bad guys. The Mighty Thor was a
favorite at the time, mainly because I was the kind of kid who rooted
for those freakishly muscular characters like He-Man, The
Terminator, and The Ultimate Warrior. Plus, Thor had that
cool-ass hammer.

But like He-Man, the idea of a live-action movie adaptation
seemed like a roll of the dice. I mean, a hulking blonde brute from
Asgard flying around with his magic hammer, tights, and viking
helmet? Nice try, Hollywood.

Thor works,
though. It found a really good balance for the epic action sequences
and the pure ridiculousness of the concept. The first half-hour
establishes who Thor is. He's big and powerful, yes, but he's a tad
arrogant and a wee-bit dim between the ears. His father, Odin
(Anthony Hopkins), hesitates when it comes to declaring him his
successor, and when Thor goes against his orders outright, banishes
Thor to Earth. And at that point, it seemed perfectly reasonable on
Odin's part to put Thor over his proverbial knee. At from there, it's
up to Thor to redeem himself before he can get his powers back and
get back to Asgard.

As the viewpoint character for anyone who has no clue about Thor,
both myth and Marvel character, the movie has Jane Foster (Natalie
Portman). She and her team discover Thor when he plummets to Earth
through one of the wormholes she's researching. For all she knows,
he's a musclebound loon who should be in an asylum, until it
gradually becomes clear there is something very special about the
guy, due in no small part to a government agency confiscating all her
research.

There are moments in this movie where the plot seems to be held
together with chewing gum and bailing twine, but it was entertaining
the whole way through. The fights are fun with cool special effects,
though I hear the 3D version was a letdown. The dialogue was
surprisingly strong and delivered well from everyone. Even Anthony
Hopkins, who I've felt has been mailing it in for years now, did a
fine job as Odin. Chris Hensworth, the guy who plays Thor, did really
well. I mean, for a character that seemed pretty shallow to me as a
kid when watching the cartoons--never read the comics, so sue me--the
character felt genuine and ultimately likable by the time the credits
rolled.

My
major gripe, as with a couple other of these Marvel Comics movies
recently, is the flagrant use of the film as a prologue for the
impending Avengers film.
Yes, there's a super-team movie coming out this summer. We get it.
Can we just have this movie act purely on its own, please? I become
more and more skeptical about The Avengers
whenever these preceding movies are used as teasers. The idea that
the last five or six Marvel films are prerequisites to fully enjoy a
single summer blockbuster feels like a lot to ask. Still, Thor
is a movie that is movie that might not hit the heights of a
Spider-Man or The
Dark Knight, but it's good and
by no means a disaster like so many other superhero movies of the
last decade or so, and frankly, that's all I asked of it.

1 comment:

I didn't really like the movie, as it did feel like more of a prologue for The Avengers movie. The only time I really perked up was when Hawkeye appeared on screen, which didn't last but a few seconds.